From: Cordell Hindler
To: City Clerk Dept User
Subject: public comments- Open Forum
Date: Thursday, February 23, 2023 5:45:32 PM
This email originated from outside of the City's email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
This email originated from outside of the City's email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Hello Mayor Martinez, Council Members and Staff,
The Comments for the Record:
for the March 28th Agenda, The Council Should Invite Danny Wan To Provide a Presentation on The Port of Oakland Plan to Recover from the Pandemic
Also To Have Lesa Mcintosh to Provide a Presentation on EBMUD Sincerely
Cordell
From: Sharon Teresa Louisell
To: City Clerk Dept User; Soheila Bana
Cc: Neelam Patil
Subject: Eco-conscious comment / suggestion / request
Date: Friday, February 24, 2023 7:31:11 PM
This email originated from outside of the City's email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
This email originated from outside of the City's email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Dear Richmond City Council,
My name is Sharon Teresa "Tarina" Louisell and I am a Therapist in Richmond High School.
I submit this comment because we are facing an eco-emergency, with 40% of plant and animal species at risk of extinction in the United States.
https://www.deccanherald.com/science-and-environment/nearly-40-of-plants-animals-in-us-at-risk-of- extinction-report-1188398.html
I believe in thinking globally, yet acting locally; and planting one or more native forests (aka Miyawaki forests) in Richmond can help reverse this emergency. It's surprisingly easy! Furthermore,
“for every 1% increase in tree cover, there is a 0.4% (0.1 to 0.7%) decrease in violent crime”:
Is green space associated with reduced crime? A national-scale study from the Global South - ScienceDirect
Also, “the greener a city is, the fewer homicides it saw over a 30-year period”:
Can Green Spaces Reduce Violence? | Psychology Today
Specifically regarding the City of Richmond, a native forest will balance health inequities.
In Richmond, asthma rates are almost double than the national average due to “carbon emissions trap(ping) the oxygen molecules that are in our air into the CO2– which means there's less oxygen for life to breathe”: REACH | Collaborative Learning for Equity and Respiratory Health Lab (ucsf.edu)
How will future warming and CO2 emissions affect oxygen concentrations? | MIT Climate Portal
Miyawaki forests balance this imbalance through sequestering the carbon molecules into its soil.
In Europe there was found to be an “offset (of) one year of carbon emissions per 100 m² lot of planted Miyawaki forest”.
Urban-Forests-report-The-Miyawaki-method-–-Data-concepts.pdf Currently CAL Fire is providing grants for such forests, including pulling up black top. https://www.fire.ca.gov/grants/
I can't help but notice that the Adult School on Carlson Blvd. near Interstate 80 sits on a massive amount of black top that I have almost never seen utilized.
My friend Neelam Patil was featured in TIME magazine last year, due to her planting of native forests in Berkeley schools, so if agreed and allowed, this process can be overseen responsibly. https://time.com/6181167/neelam-patil-innovative-teachers-2022/ I've shared you on a google doc with more research I personally did re: Miyawaki forests:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CrJXIIH0ejYZ_Uhx02NywcfBlkhBhNnYHj2P8gEZYVg/edit? usp=sharing
I'm hoping this can be discussed in the meeting planned for Tuesday, March 7th, 2023.
Please do reach me?
Thank you so much for your attention here! We are in this world together.
Sharon Teresa "Tarina"
--
Sharon Teresa Louisell, MSW, ACSW (she, her, hers)
c. 510.230.9192
"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of Life's coming attractions". -Albert Einstein From: Kathleen Wimer
To: City Clerk Dept User
Cc: Eduardo Martinez; Gayle McLaughlin; Melvin Willis; Claudia Jimenez; Doria Robinson; Cesar Zepeda; Soheila Bana
Subject: Public Comment - Open Forum pertinent to Consent Calendar Item U.2,, Council Meeting 02/28/23 Date: Monday, February 27, 2023 3:37:54 PM
This email originated from outside of the City's email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
This email originated from outside of the City's email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Dear Mayor Martinez and Council Members,
Almost all of the "What we did" and "What we plan" statements included in these Budget Presentations reflect inputs of these sorts (not to pick on any particular city department):
"Engage in regional and federal efforts," "Explore grant opportunities." What matters is the outcome resulting from staff inputs. For what reason, to accomplish what city objectives will staff engage in regional and federal efforts? The same vis-a-vis grant opportunities. What outcomes do staff wish to produce for which grants, in what amount, will be necessary and for which they will leave no stone unturned to find the funds to produce?
Few of these budget updates include any bottom line. They do not describe what will be better, what outcomes will result because of the inputs the public presumes staff gives every day, all the time.
I hope the mayor and council can begin work with the city manager on outcome-driven budget proposals which will be matched by mid-year or better, quarterly, reports with more specificity. For example, it would be nice to hear this kind of outcome projected by (again, not to pick on any particular department) the Department of Economic Development, "Facilitated operation of X number of new businesses in Richmond that employ X number of Richmond residents and add x $million to the city's general fund.” It is hard to imagine how the Mayor and Council Members can be held accountable for the city’s success or failures unless the information available to you depicts actual results against projections stated in terms of precise, measurable, agreeable aims and planned outcomes.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Wimer
Richmond Resident
2/28/23, 1:10 PM https://richmond.escribemeetings.com/Pages/ReportingPrintFriendly.aspx?reporting-reporttype=PublicComment https://richmond.escribemeetings.com/Pages/ReportingPrintFriendly.aspx?reporting-reporttype=PublicComment 1/2 Portal Search...
Meeting Date
Agenda Item
Name
Email
Comment
Position
Status
City Council
2/28/2023 4:00 PM West Contra Costa
Uni ed School
District Update
Kathleen Wimer 1.) Graph at
beginning of report
shows “We are
here” as of
Fall/Winter 2022.
This is Fall/Winter
2023. Is this an
error? If this is
where we are;
where do we go
next? 2.) The math
and reading STAR
(for what does that
stand?)
benchmarks are
below acceptable
levels. Only for
“Multiple”
ethnicities and for
“White” do levels
exceed 60%.
What’s being done
to improve
learning
attainment levels?
3.) What’s the
di erence between
completion rates
and A - G
percentage rates?
Completion rates
are low. What’s
being done to
retain students
- Appro
2/28/23, 1:10 PM https://richmond.escribemeetings.com/Pages/ReportingPrintFriendly.aspx?reporting-reporttype=PublicComment https://richmond.escribemeetings.com/Pages/ReportingPrintFriendly.aspx?reporting-reporttype=PublicComment 2/2 through to
completion? 4.)
Admission rates to
the UC system are
supplied and
appear
respectable.
Information is
meaningless
without
comparison to
application rates.
2/28/2023 4:00 PM Proposed Contract
with Chain Link
Fence & Supply,
Inc.
Joe Puleo joepuleo@hotmail.
com
It should be
possible to reuse
the existing chain
link fabric at the
Bio/swale. Was this
option and the cost
savings
considered?
No Position Appro